Extra Services

German Media Crews Visit Miyako

Date Posted: 2000-02-27

A group of nine media people from Germany arrived Miyako Island, Monday. The group’s visit was part of the island’s citizens’ campaign to get the German Chancellor and his spouse to visit Miyako during the upcoming Okinawa G-8 Summit.

The idea is to have the Chancellor’s visit to give a boost to Miyako’s German Village theme park. The chairman of the German Chancellor’s Miyako Visit Committee, Hirara City Mayor Akira Ishimine, invited the group to Miyako. The Germans were scheduled to stay in Miyako till Wednesday, February 23rd.

Miyako’s German Village is built on the site where a German ship ran aground in 1873. Local residents rescued the crew and later, on the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Germans erected an epitaph on the site that stands to this day.

A participant, TV Director Thomas Oiting was pleased about the visit. “I think it’s a good idea to have the German Chancellor visit here,” Oiting said. “Especially if some kind of friendship event for children from Miyako and Germany is organized to take place at the same time... There is a very good possibility that our Chancellor would then decide to come here.” He also expressed interest in producing a documentary of the shipwreck and of the people who helped the crew.